Holiday Wrap-up

It's hard to believe it, but the holidays are almost over!

Since we took our vacation so close to Christmas, we really didn't have very much time to prepare for the holidays. This was particularly hard on Rick, who relishes in putting up all of the Christmas trimmings. We opted for a single Christmas tree (instead of putting up two) and didn't even put up our stockings this year! Yes, very Grinchy indeed.

But the tree was lovely, although we realized that our snowman decorations that filled a 7-ft tree rather nicely, looked a little sparse on our new, pre-lit 9-ft tree! Trust me... It is SO worth not having to string lights on a tree! What a time saver!

On Christmas Eve we went over to the Duda's (Loretta and Dave, Rick's parents). We'll post some pictures in our next blog and on my Picasa album once Rick re-sizes them for the web. Just like last year Rick dressed up as Santa for the kids, who seemed a bit more at ease with Santa than last year. There we lots of gifts to hand out and it was a lot of fun!

On Christmas day we went to the Lerch's (Bob and Rita, my parents) for a buffet dinner and games. Our attempt at replicating the pear martini from Las Vegas was an utter failure, but mom's iced tea is always top notch! We played 80's Trivial Pursuit, which proved to me, at least, that I should have been paying better attention to the news! Jen and I rocked the music category, though! But alas, the boys beat us in the end! Darn those sports questions!

This year our gift to each other was our new kitten, Scout, the gift that keeps giving. Well, the give that keeps us on our toes, anyways! So far she's been to the vet 3 times, but that's to be expected with a shelter kitty. Even when she's not feeling well she's just the sweetest kitten. Her highest aspiration, though, is to play with Buttercup, who either runs away or smacks her smartly on the head, every time Scout tries to play. They are warming up to each other, though, as Q (aka grandpa) watches from a safe distance.

What we'll remember best from this year's holiday extravaganza are these: a fantastic trip to Las Vegas with Jen and my parents, a new fuzzy family member, Santa Rick, and meow-ing Christmas carols around mom and dad's tree! (Be glad that we don't have any audio of this!)

We can hardly wait to see what 2008 will bring. First is our promise to post some holiday pictures, soon!

Happy new year, everyone!